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The Host - Trailer

When an unseen enemy threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories, Melanie will risk everything to protect the people she cares most about, proving that love can conquer all in a dangerous new world.

However, during the final days of a film shoot near Albuquerque, New Mexico, on a rugged, dusty plain whipped frequently by brief, wild windstorms, there was unanimous agreement that something truly special was taking place.

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Those involved in The Host, an ambitious science-fiction movie based on a best-selling novel by Stephenie Meyer - yes, the creator of the bafflingly successful Twilight series - were excited about the prospects of the film, but the presence of one actor had the cast and crew entranced.

''I think she may become the best actress of her generation,'' producer Steve Schwartz (Killing Them Softly, The Tree of Life, The Road) says about his teenage lead in The Host, Saoirse Ronan. ''Really, she's quite unbelievable.''

Well, you would expect the guy whose role it is to put the project together and make it commercially viable to say that, but it's a sentiment shared by the director, fellow cast mates and crew members who admit to going out of their way to watch the young Irishwoman work.

''[Some] people who don't suffer fools gladly took one look at her and went 'wow','' says Andrew Niccol, the New Zealand-born director of The Host.

The 18-year-old plays Melanie, part of a small human resistance in a world that has been taken over by peaceful aliens called Souls. When Melanie is caught by the Seeker (Diane Kruger) she suffers the same fate as nearly all others: having a Soul surgically implanted in her body.

However, Melanie refuses to relinquish control to the Soul, named Wanderer, and tries to enlist the help of the implant, setting off on a search for her family and two requisite hunky young men. A romantic ''quadrangle'' ensues.

''Just the idea of playing two characters, that's very exciting for any actor to get the opportunity: two species as well,'' Ronan says. ''Also I love Stephenie's work and when I heard Andrew was going to do the job - every project he does is mind-blowing in some way.''

Ronan's ability to shift seamlessly between the two characters inhabiting her body in the movie was, at times, spellbinding, according to cast and crew. Niccol says the actor's subtle shifts in body language and dexterity with accents were masterful. ''She's got this pretty distinctive Irish brogue, but she's playing a character with two different American accents. She just flips them on with a switch.''

Ronan first demanded moviegoers' attention when in 2008, at age 13, she became one of the youngest people to be nominated for an Academy Award for her work in Atonement.

She has been an arresting presence in almost every role since, including Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, Peter Weir's undervalued epic The Way Back and alongside Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett in the thriller Hanna.

As well as her conspicuous acting chops, Ronan's apparently malleable physical features enhance her ability to compellingly demonstrate a character's transformation onscreen.

When Ronan turns up to the set of The Host to talk about the movie, she appears - flanked by her father Paul and mother Monica - as the quintessential young Irishwoman, with her luminously fair complexion and quick laugh, sometimes about herself.

She is blessed with an unaffected charm, her immediate ambition nothing greater than wanting to get home to County Carlow in Ireland, ''seeing friends, listening to music and walking my dog by the river''.

Yet, as she discusses her work, she exudes a worldly presence. Not surprisingly, several of her colleagues refer to her as an ''old soul''.

''I'm around adults an awful lot,'' she says. ''And my dad was an actor [so] he's always had interesting creative-type friends in the theatre and people like the [Irish director] Jim Sheridan types, so I've always had really cool people around.''

Ronan, an only child, has been scheming carefully about her future with her father, her confidant who spent years breaking through as an actor and pulling beers in New York City where Ronan was born. The family moved back to Ireland when she was three.

''We talk through everything together and read the scripts,'' she says.

They seem to have selected her next project wisely. Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel has her sharing the limelight with acting royalty, including Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law and Harvey Keitel.

Ronan is in increasing demand in Hollywood, although she has no plans to relocate. And for the foreseeable future, her parents will accompany her to film sets. ''Mum and dad come everywhere with me,'' she says, as her father beams at her proudly. ''We're the type of people who are real … and we know what to stay away from.''